EX7700 & EX8000 sharing same extended WiFi channel

[s3v3n]

Hello,

My current setup is a Netgear X10 router, 1 Netgear EX8000 Mesh extender and a recently purchased Netgear EX7700 mesh extender.  My issue is, when my extenders restart, they go back to broadcasting the same extended WiFi channel.  So currently, my WiFi channel setup is  EX8000(36) --- R(157) ---- EX7700(48) . However.. if I restart my extenders, both will default to the same exteder WiFi channel.  For example EX8000(36) --- R(157) ---- EX7700(36) .  I've tried factory resetting, I tried setting up the extenders seperate and no luck.  They operate fine until reset, once reset both extenders revert back to sharing the same extended wifi channel.  How do I correct this?

[StephenB]

In the specific case of channels 36 and 48, 802.11ac will aggregate channels 36+40+44+48 anyway into a single data pipe anyway.  It really doesn't matter which of those channels is chosen to be the primary.

Are you seeing an actual performance issue?

[s3v3n]

Thank you for your reply.
No, I'm not experiencing any loss of service, averaging about 500-600mbps on 5ghz AC. This was general curiosity and i always was under the impression when multiple extenders are in close range, ~25 feet or so they should operate on different wireless channels.

[StephenB]

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@s3v3n wrote:
This was general curiosity and i always was under the impression when multiple extenders are in close range, ~25 feet or so they should operate on different wireless channels.

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My short answer is that if you are getting 500-600 mbps speeds you should leave well enough alone.

There aren't many choices with 802.11ac, because of the channel aggregation into 80 Mhz channels.

If you exclude the DFS frequencies, you have two sets of frequencies in the US - {36,40,44,48}, and {149,153, 157, 161, 165}.  Since the 80 Mhz channel takes four consecutive 20 Mhz channel slots, you end up with only two non-overlapping channel choices - one in each set.

Using the DFS frequencies gives you more non-overlapping choices.  But there are some burdens in the APs in using them - outlined here: http://wifinigel.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-5ghz-problem-for-wi-fi-networks-dfs.html

The most recent EX8000 firmware does include the DFS channel set, but older firmware didn't - not sure when it was added.

Note that the details on what channels can be used (and the power limits) vary by geography.